EXCLUSIVE: Michael Mitnick has been set by Universal Pictures to adapt the Oliver Jeffers novelThe Incredible Book Eating Boy. Escape Artists partners Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal and Steve Tisch are producing with Furst Films’ Bryan Furst & Sean Furst. Escape Artists’ Jenna Block is co-producing. Mitnick, who scripted The Current War for Timur Bekmambetov to direct, will be an exec producer. The story is set in the near future where books are scarce and a young boy develops a strange appetite for them.

Mitnick’s The Current War script made the 2011 Black List and will shoot next year. He’s also writing an untitled film for Universal and Mark Gordon, and he’s rewriting Jeckyll for Fox 2000 with Karen Rosenfelt producing. Mitnick is also writing the book for the Broadway-bound musical based on the movie classic Animal House, and he’s the lyricist for King Kong, which will launch onstage in Australia next year before hitting Broadway. Mitnick is repped by WME and Jeff Silver at Fourth Floor Productions.